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11.01.2009

A Halloween Recap

I'm kind of a brat about store-bought Halloween costumes ("store-bought", (snort) sounds very Little House on the Prairie, huh?). Anyway, I use everything at my disposal to coerce my kids into letting me make their costumes (eg. bribery, threats, begging, whatever it takes). Unfortunately, my older two boys are beyond convincing (even though the child who's costume I make ALWAYS wins the yearly costume contest). So, I give you the whacko from Scream (yawn):



And Skeleton Jester(snore):




Now that that's over with...Presenting super awesome Psycho Jack-in-the-box!!!!



Thank goodness, my munchkin let me make his costume this year (and he won the contest I might add). He wanted to be a scary, psychotic jack-in-the-box and I was more than happy to oblige.

The costume is nothing more than a cardboard box with the top and bottom removed. I painted it all old and spooky-like, and clipped on some suspenders to hold it in place.

A crank was fashioned from pvc pipe and plumbing connectors, then spray painted silver.

Put on a clown shirt, paint his face all scary-clownish, and plop a jester's hat on his head and he's good to go! Oh, I'm so glad he let me make his costume this year!

After trick-or-treat, we lit the bonfire (like I showed you last week) and partied on down with our neighbors. The adults sipped on spiked cider while the kids played in the woods behind us on the "Haunted Trail".



Want to make a Haunted Trail? Just string some ordinary twinkle lights into your nearest woods and use a heavy duty staple gun to tack up all sorts of creatures from the Dollar Tree. Some masks and capes on branches for monsters and it's a spooky playground!

Oh, and what happens to a bonfire tended by 3 men late into the night after a few too many spiked ciders? Well, everything flammable gets thrown in and your Adirondack chairs will be in danger of incinerating. Men...

22 comments:

  1. That jack in the box ROCKS!!! Sounds like y'all had fun!

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  2. Awesome job on the costume! I was dying to see what it looked like it when you told me what he was going as! Congrats on his winning! (my little guy took 1st place for his Max costume!!)

    Love the bonfire and haunted trail! Sounds like so much fun!

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  3. Wow...that is an amazing Jack in the Box. I am so impressed:) Looks like a great time.

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  4. Love it! So you can relate to how I feel about store-bought costumes as well. See why it pained me to rush out and buy the pirate?! I just had to find accessories to liven it up! And, are you telling me that my snobbiness is leading me down the path of years of homemade costumes? I better get started on next year now...maybe I'll get it done in time!

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  5. What a great costume!!!! Spooky!!! Can I commission you for my future children's Halloween costumes?!?!? :)

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  6. The boys look amazing!!!!! So glad you all had a great time. XOXOXO Hope to see you soon. Love, Aunt Lisa

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  7. great costume! i really prefer homemade costumes, too, alas...i could not figure out how to make a jango fett costume on my own. boys...

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  8. To me part of the Halloween FUN was coming up with a costume idea and MAKING it work out of something. LOVE the scary Jack-in-a-box!
    That is SOME fire!

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  9. I love to make costumes, but we don't celebrate Halloween as much as you do! But still, we have Bonfire Night coming up on the 5th November, so we get to make Guys to sit on the top of the fires, and FIREWORKS too!

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  10. LOL - LOVE the costume! What an AWESOME job you did! Sorry about the chairs but sounds like you had a great time and the spiked cider sounds like a great idea! :o)

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  11. Nice costumes, but those would scare my little one. In fact I think when she was two or three she did see the first one and that's why she refuses to go trick-or-treating. I wish older kids would realize how much their costumes scare the little ones.

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  12. Awesome costume! I am so not crafty like that to make our own.
    Thanks for stopping by my blog :)

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  13. OMG!!!! The Jack in the Box Rocks!!!!!!!!!! Way super great!!!!

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  14. Those last two were certifiably scary!

    Stopping by from the SITS Halloween Parade :o)

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  15. Great thinking on the jack-in-the-box costume! I've always loved coming up with costumes from stuff you have around the house. The others DO seem so generic. Looks like all had a great time!

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  16. That's great. Those are exactly the kinds of costume my boys would like. Love the jack in the box.

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  17. What a fun Halloween! That jack-in-the-box is going to give me nightmares though. No joke, I jump every time a jack in the box opens. I know it's going to pop up. I prepare for it. I still jump. That one may haunt my dreams for years. ;)

    XO*Tricia

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  18. Jen, let boys be boys. Or in this case, let me be me. We like to burn stuff and a bonfire is the perfect time. LOL.

    The "Scream" costume was very cool (and a great movie BTW). But I liked the munchkin's costume too!

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